The evening of the day after our first platinum class, we had our second clicker class. I thought that we weren't very well prepared at all for the homework that we had to do, but I underestimated my boy again. I'd done a few quick training sessions with him during the day before class and he was:
1. steadily offering his default behaviour, wherever I positioned myself;
2. becoming more consistent with his left paw targetting but was still thrusting his paw out and dragging the target rather than just tapping it;
3. still loving 'roll over' and would follow my hand even if it didn't have a treat in it.
At class, we worked on making the paw targetting more accurate (beautiful left paw taps from Mr Beans!) then started to shape the left paw targetting into a 'wave', we started to introduce right paw targetting with a new target (hit and miss to start with but Bran improved quite quickly with this), we were working on introducing the verbal command 'roll over' just before using the hand signal then phasing out the hand signal all together, then we tried to "free shape" a behaviour firstly from a 'stand' then from a 'down'. Bran found the last 2 exercises quite difficult as he is very good at holding his position in perfect stillness! Anyway, we had just 4 days before the next class so had lots of homework on top of out platinum homework!!
The following day, Bran was really off colour :o( He kept crying and taking himself out to the kitchen away from the rest of us and those are usually big flashing signs that something is causing him pain, but he was walking well and seemed ok in himself in between the bouts of crying and hiding. He's due to start a new med regime soon to try and manage the pain from his elbow dysplasia but needed to finish his steroids first. He took his last steroid on Saturday 14th and should be starting on his new tablets on Tuesday 24th, but I'm monitoring him carefully in case he needs to be whisked off to the vets a bit early.
Given his being so unsettled, I didn't really push Bran much with our homework over the weekend, but by Sunday evening he seemed brighter so we had a few short training sessions throughout Monday before heading off to class in the evening.
During our sessions on Monday, Bran was:
1. becoming much more accurate with his left paw targetting, but reverting straight back to trying to drag it if I lifted it off of the floor;
2. becoming more consistent with his right paw targetting and was offering his right paw for 3 in every 4 times;
3. happily performing a 'roll over' just on a verbal command;
4. starting to offer a head bob down to his right and back up during free shaping from a 'down';
5. starting to offer a little bottom shuffle with his front paws tapping and a little wuff during free shaping from a 'sit', having refused to attempt anything from a 'stand'.
At class, my clever little puppy dog happily started to build up to a 'wave', despite all previous resistance at home! His right paw targetting became SO consistent that even when I took the target up, he was tapping the spot where the target had been!
We then learned a new game which will help the dogs to focus better. Jo called it 'watch the mousey' and we had to, initially, get our dogs to a point where we could put a treat on the floor in front of them with our hands nearby with them not trying to get the treat without being given a command (such as 'leave'). Once we'd got this far, we needed to be sure that the dogs were focussed on the treat and not on us. Once they'd got that far, we flicked the treat! The dogs then charged off to get it and returned. After a few of these, we then had to be cheeky and try to distract the dogs whilst they were carefully watching the treat. Jo's demonstration was done with my food loving puppy dog and she clicked her fingers behind him. As soon as he broke his concentration to look at her, she picked the treat up, hid it for a moment, then offered it again. Next time she clicked her fingers, he never moved ;o) We can build up on this by offering more and more distractions but the dogs are only going to be rewarded if they remain intently focussed on the treat. Bran LOVED this game and foresee lots of fun times with it at home. Jacob had a few problems with smartypants Casey as she carried on focussing carefully on thrown treats for the rest of the session after the game had finished and he was trying to reward her for behaviours!! LOL!
He happily showed off his big, flouncy 'roll over', but was so tired by the time we got around to demonstrating the 'sit' free shape behaviour that he couldn't sit straight. Often when he is tired, he flops over on to his left hip and this is what he kept doing. I tried to click him for some straight 'sit's, but he only managed two before lapsing back into the 'lazy sit' so I conceded defeat.
Jo then introduced us to 'go through' and 'go around' where we teach our dogs to either 'go through' a hoop or 'go around' something like a cone or a chair. As the chosen demo dog was a bit wary of the hoop, Bran went up to show her how it was done. It was very funny watching him watching her being afraid as it was very reminiscent of when I first tried to introduce to the doggy brain training game and Flora was in the crate screaming to be let out to show him how to do it properly! How the times have changed :o) Jacob has decided to teach Casey 'go through' and I'm going to do 'go around' with Bran.
We had our second platinum class this morning and were back at the Nailsea hall due to the on and off heavy showers we've been enduring. Bran enjoys the company of the dogs that he attends platinum with so much that he just becomes a complete airhead when he sees them all - wuffing and playbowing and bouncing. Clown dog.
We started off with trying the obedience 'sit and 'stand' and I had some success with the Pickle!! He was coming in much closer to my side than he has been during home attempts, so it is definite progress :o)
Next we had a go at our 'fetch it'. Bran happily ran off to fetch his rabbit disc a few times for me, consistently spitting it at my feet each time he was about a foot away from me. He got fed up of fetching this, so I placed it to one side on the floor and picked up the keys with the dummy keyring on. He ran out happily to fetch it, got halfway back to me, then stopped, spat the keyring out and picked up the rabbit disc! Little monkey! Jo came over and gave me some tips on getting him to hold the item in his mouth for longer (I made a huge mistake a few days ago and started teaching him 'hold it' with a verbal command right away and making him hold the item in his mouth and he just looked utterly miserable the whole time - bad mummy!).
Dummy Keyrings
We went back inside and Jo announced that we were going to do some work on getting them all to hold their toys for longer - woohoo! Just what I need! We were each given a piece of hosepipe (as something - hopefully - new for them all to hold in their mouths), encouraged to get them as excited about it as possible, then taking hold of the end of the hosepipe and telling them to 'give' before quickly offering a game with a toy or a treat. It was all very fast, but Bran did get it very quickly and I have high hopes of this working out. I am VERY excited at the prospect of having my little gundog delivering to hand at long last! :o)
We then did some work on getting the dogs' 'bow' put on to a verbal command and a clear hand signal as well as trying to build in some duration. Jo offered us the command 'take a bow' to make it sound different to 'down' and that was a much better suggestion than the 'dip' I had in my head ;o) Bran really likes this exercise too and will happily hold the pose for a few seconds and will perform when I just use the new hand signal and verbal command without a treat in my hand. Good boy.
Happily, Jo then also told us that we were going to teach the dogs 'go around'. Life becomes easier when clicker and platinum class merge a little ;o) Bran went up to demonstrate the 'go around' (and Jo has promised to give me some tips at clicker class next week to work around his 'shark teeth' method of snatching treats from pincered fingers!) and he was quickly doing what was asked of him, bless his little paws. We all had a go at teaching our dogs the 'go around' before class finished. Bran seems to really like this exercise and was absolutely shattered by the end of class!
*If any of you are interested in buying a dummy keyring or 2, or a rabbit covered disc, my lovely friend Helen sells them on her gundoggery website Hilost :o)
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